Vice President Antonio Tajani will visit Berlin on Wednesday 25 April and Thursday 26 April. In a series of meetings he will call for support for a common approach in industrial policy as well as exchange views on specific industry issues like energy-efficient cars, tourism, smart cities, resource efficiency and measures to boost entrepreneurship.

In this context he will be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss co-operation for improved supply of raw materials under the new Innovation Partnership Agreement (see below). With Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, Dr. Peter Ramsauer, VP Tajani will discuss the progress of the GMES (Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security), the planned reduction of noise levels of passenger cars and electro mobility. With Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Philipp Roessler, VP Tajani will discuss industrial issues and the forthcoming communication on Key Enabling Technologies.

Other meetings on industrial and entrepreneurship issues are scheduled with Mr Holger Schwannecke, General Secretary of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (“Zentralverband des deutschen Handwerks”, ZDH), with Prof. Dr. Dieter Hundt, President of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (“Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände", BDA, and with the President of the BDI Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (Federation of German Industry), Hans Peter Keitel. Antonio Tajani also will meet with Dr. Martin Wansleben, Managing director of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, DIHK).

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, will also attend several conferences and events:

Low Season Tourism as an Economic and Social Driver

“Extending the Tourist Season in Europe” is the topic Vice President Tajani would like to discuss on the occasion of a meeting with top level German public and private sector stakeholders. The development of low-season exchanges particularly for senior citizens across Europe can indeed boost short-term growth, thus improving seasonality patterns and creating longer-term jobs in the tourism industry. In this context the success of a low season project in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will be reviewed.

“Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs” to boost creation of small enterprises

Mr Tajani will participate in meeting and press conference with Young Entrepreneurs who learned how to run an enterprise in another Member State under the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.

This exchange scheme offers an excellent opportunity for new entrepreneurs to acquire relevant skills for managing a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). By working with an experienced entrepreneur, the new entrepreneurs learn how to manage an SME as well as getting familiar with the business environment in another EU country.

Innovation partnership to overcome Europe's raw materials shortages

In the afternoon of Wednesday the VP will participate in a congress on raw materials organized by the CDU/CSU faction in the German Bundestag.

His speech will focus on the need for innovation partnership to overcome Europe's raw materials shortages. It has been estimated that the value of unexploited European mineral resources at a depth of 500-1,000 metres is about € 100 billion. Extracting them requires innovative and costly solutions, for the implementation of these, the Commission has launched the innovation partnership.

The general idea is that by pulling together capital and human resources, Member States, companies and researchers join innovation efforts to support exploration, extraction and processing of raw materials, as well as the recycling of these and their substitution.

E-Mobility and alternative propulsion systems

At a meeting with the President of the ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil Club), the largest automobile club in Germany and Europe, Peter Meyer, Antonio Tajani will discuss recent developments in EU car manufacturing (slump of car sales), development of e-mobility, how to make incentive systems for energy saving cars more efficient, and the international position of EU car manufacturing vis-à-vis competitors in China and the US.